The corrections

Tens of thousands of copies of the new novel by bestselling US author Jonathan Franzen, Freedom, have been recalled in the UK after an early draft of the book was printed by mistake, his publisher said Saturday.

Best known for his best-selling 2001 novel The Corrections, Franzen has received a tidal wave of hype in Britain and the United States for his latest work, with one reviewer calling it the "novel of the century."

But publishers HarperCollins said the version of Freedom released in Britain earlier this week contained dozens of mistakes, with about 8000 copies being sold from the initial print run of 80,000 now in shops.

"It was a typesetter's error. The books have around 50 punctuation and spelling mistakes. The typesetter sent the last-but-one version," said a HarperCollins spokesman.